


Companions React to a f!Sole Survivor who Looks Younger than She Really is

by tea_petty



Series: Collection of Companions' Reactions [26]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Computers, F/F, Robots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-11 19:48:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19933537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tea_petty/pseuds/tea_petty
Summary: Fallout 4 characters are taken aback to find that the Sole Survivor is older - albeit not necessarily wiser - than she initially appears.





	Companions React to a f!Sole Survivor who Looks Younger than She Really is

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to my Tumblr; tea-petty

The elevator jerked to a stop, juddering Sole in her worn boots, before she stepped out into the harsh, industrial lights. The great, gloomy expanse of Isabel’s workspace flickered as spangled blots of light were tossed at them from the variety of machines humming, whizzing, and whirring around the grand foyer. When Sole came to stand front and center of the vast space, she could crane her neck up to behold the large platform that played central command to Isabel. There, the woman sat, tapping avidly away at her keyboard, and muttering critical barbs to herself before her lithe fingers responded with more sequences of strings that made sense to everyone in the room save Isabel and Sole themselves.

“Isa!” Sole called.

For a few moments, nothing changed amidst the industrious mechanical noises that wheezed, clicked, and sputtered like the building was breathing through phlegm-coated lungs. Then, a familiar tan face poked out from the mass of steel elevated above.

“Sole!” Isabel called back in greeting, before disappearing again, and reappearing at the bottom of the metal, grated stairs that descended turnaboutly onto the ground level. “I didn’t know you were coming back so soon.”

Her smile was warm, though Sole noticed her eyes flit upwards and beyond, as if searching briefly for the presence of someone else besides Sole.

For now, she shook the strange observation from her thoughts.

“I was in the area and thought I’d drop by,” Sole smiled back in a friendly manner, “I wanted to see how you were holding up.”

The corner of Isabel’s eyes and mouth tightened as something Sole couldn’t see worked terseness back into Isabel’s face like strong hands on taffy. Despite the sudden edge to her demeanor though, Isabel’s voice remained light as she answered.

“I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m doing okay here,”

Sole’s face must not have seemed convinced, because her face tilted, trying to peer past the air of reassuring pretense.

“ _Really_ ,” she insisted, “you’re a good kid-” Sole’s eyebrows flew up, “-and I know you just want to help, but I’m…this is something I need to fix myself. I was the one who created the Mechanist, now I need to be the one to put it to rest, once and for all.”

“I understand. Of course, if there’s anything I can do to help…”

Isabel’s face softened all at once; she was just trying to help. Raw wound as her time as the Mechanist still was, she couldn’t fault Sole for that. Isa sighed lightly, before reaching to good naturedly ruffle Sole’s hair.

“I know, and if there is anything, you’ll be the first person I go to.”

Isabel grinned, before turning and ascending the metal catwalk again, leaving Sole staring slightly gape-jawed at her retreating form. It had been more than two-hundred years since the last time it had happened, but she certainly knew when she was being patronized.

Sole trailed up the metal path, following in her friend’s steps at what was hopefully construed as a casual pace.

“What are you working on now?” Sole ran a finger along the length of the metal railing, pausing as she did so to inspect the dust that gathered at her finger.

Isabel didn’t bother tearing her gaze from the screen of her computer as she answered.

“Tracking more bots.” The green text on the screen cast an eerie, green glow on her face, completing her mad scientist look, although the frown on her face was more disapproving than maddened. “The Commonwealth is littered with them.”

“Sounds like a lot for one person to do.”

“It is,” the corner of Isabel’s mouth twitched, “but it’s the least I can do.”

Sole watched her friend, looking a million years older with her face creased with worry, and bathed in the dusky, limited light in what was formerly the Mechanist’s lair. After Isabel had put the Mechanist to rest, she’d vowed to make amends to the Commonwealth by whatever means necessary, and looking at her now, Sole could see that ‘whatever’ included her own wellbeing. 

“I could help take care of some of those bots,” Sole offered, hoping her voice sounded casual.

Isabel raised a hand to wring out towards Sole, as if shoving her offer away before it could reach her tired ears. The other hand was still tapping away at the keyboard, too practiced to skip a beat to answer.

“No, no, no – you just hang out. Are you hungry? There should be ingredients for a sandwich in the kitchen area.”

-

One halfhearted, cram-sandwich later, Sole returned to the main foyer of the lair, only to discover that Isabel was nowhere to be found. Sole’s first instinct was to look for her, but it only took her one determined step forward to freeze up as realization hit her like an anvil hanging from a rope in one of those silent films.

This was an _opportunity_ , of sorts.

Sole beelined towards the catwalk, ascending it again. As she approached Isabel’s workstation, she could still see the bots working industriously, despite the fact that there master was nowhere to be found. Sparks whirred over to Sole upon noticing her, greeting her with a myriad of beeping that Sole could only interpret as excitement.

“Hey Sparks, know where Isabel wandered off to?”

Sparks chittered in a rapid, alternating high-low pitch pattern, before settling on the lower pitch and holding it for a few moments longer.

_Negative._

“Then do you know what she was working on?”

This time, Sparks let out three short higher pitched beeps, before circling around in a flighty motion, and moving to the main computer Isabel had been working on earlier. Sole followed, crouching by the computer as Sparks erupted into a cacophony of sporadic sounding beeps once more.

“Thanks,” Sole murmured, as she looked intently at the screen, her eyes moving adeptly from left to right as she scanned the material.

Isabel had been working straight from the console it seemed, inputting a series of commands that the robot corresponding to the robot ID she entered as the command’s parameter, would respond to with some sort of signal. That signal was enough for the tracking software Isabel had enabled to pick up a blip on its radar, and indicate the location on a map, which could then be transferred and sent to other devices. 

Hm, not terribly complicated.

Sole looked down to inspect her Pip-boy, her fingers reaching to trace a finger along the intricate knobs and buttons at the side. Interestingly enough, her Pip-boy was an example of a device that supported the transfer.

She still didn’t know where Isabel was, but surely, she could entertain herself for a few more hours, or at least until Isabel returned…

-

No less than ten hours later, Isabel emerged up the catwalk again, dark hair mussed, jumpsuit creased, her fists balled and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. When she drew her hands away, she blinked sleepily at her work center, not empty as she had anticipated it to be, before her eyes widened at the sight of Sole tapping fervently away, too engrossed in whatever it was she was doing to notice Isabel’s return. The poor lighting of the monitor highlighted the dark shadows blooming beneath Sole’s fatigue-reddened eyes.

“ _What_ -?”

It was all Isabel could force out as she stared bewildered at Sole, confused and groggy and wondering why this kid was on her _personal_ computer.

“What?” she wondered again, about everything in particular, and much more quietly than before.

Then, so suddenly it felt a bit unreal, and almost phantom at that, Sole turned to Isabel and smiled widely.

“There – done!”

“Done?” Isabel asked dumbly.

“Yeah!” Sole chirped merrily, “I finished it! I tracked all the stray bots while you…” Sole’s gaze ran over Isabel’s disheveled appearance, “napped? Anyways, it’s done! So, you can relax now.”

Isabel looked from Sole to her computer again, her mouth still not having recovered the sense it needed to shut. 

“But…done?”

Sole blinked back in optimistic puzzlement.

“You can check my work if it’ll make you more comfortable,” she offered.

Isabel came over to peer over Sole’s shoulder, eyes scanning the intricate lines of green text that filled the screen. Not a single character was out of place.

“But how did you…?” Isabel muttered, her brow pulling into a deep furrow, “are you one of those weird math prodigies or something?”

Sole looked at her, bewildered.

“…No?” she finally said, her voice tight. It was obvious to both of them, that Sole had mustered all the self-control she had to answer as politely as she could, “I…worked a lot with computers in my pre-war job, and learned most of what I know through experience and the classes I took in col- erhm, my pre-war schooling.”

Isabel gaped at Sole.

“They used _child labor_ back then?”

“No? I mean, not legally or in commonplace. I didn’t get my first job until I was about sixteen or so, and even then, it was easy stuff – bookkeeping, or bagging groceries.”

Isabel blanched and Sole reached out two arms to hover a couple of inches away from Isabel, in case she toppled over. 

“How long ago were you sixteen?” she asked weakly.

“Oh geez, at least six – or I suppose that’s _206_ years, by now,” Sole scratched at the nape of her neck, as if rooting around for the correct number.

“And you escaped the vault after being frozen 200 years?”

“That’s right.”

Isabel fanned out a couple fingers before ticking them back down to a folded position as she mouthed what Sole thought were numbers. When she returned from whatever strange state she’d disappeared to, Isabel looked thoroughly surprised at what she’d found while gone.

“You’re _twenty-two_?” Isabel exclaimed in shock.

“I think, yeah, that’s about right. If I haven’t had my birthday yet, I should soon.”

“So, I’ve been…feeding you for what? Kicks?”

Sole shrugged, as puzzled as Isabel seemed to be.

“I just thought you were being nice.”

“Oh god!” Isabel slapped a hand over her face, right in time to meagerly guard it before a bright flush glowed, “I _pat_ your head!”

“Yeah,” Sole smiled lopsidedly, “I sort of wondered about that.”

“Twenty-two,” Isabel shook her head in disbelief as her hand fell back to her side, “and here I thought you were just mature for your age.”

Sole looked offended now.

“Hey! I’m mature!”

Isabel snorted, before tossing a playful elbow towards Sole’s ribs. 

“Yeah, sure. Go get some sleep or something.”

Sole raised her eyebrows, “You know I’m not a kid, and yet you’re still parenting me?”

Isabel scooted in to edge Sole out of her usual spot at command center, shooting a glance back her way.

“Adults need someone to look out for them too, right?” Isabel’s voice softened, and Sole felt intensely cherished in a way she hadn’t been for 206 years. “Seriously, you look like the living dead. Rest a bit.”

Sole blinked at Isabel, the force of her sleep deprivation beginning to pull at her. Her limbs felt leaden now, and it was all she could do not to sink down into a cozy pile right where she stood.

“Yeah, alright, I guess I will.”

As she descended the catwalk, the air was still void of the sound of fingers at keys.


End file.
